Jimmy the Wags by James G. Wagner Street Stories of a Private Eye

After twenty-two years as a New York cop, Jimmy the Wags thought he's seen it all, but it wasn't until he retired and set up as a private eye that his real education began. Now, in his own inimitable voice, he tells a true-life story with all the action, adventure, and atmosphere of Wiseguy or Serpico -- a colorful cautionary tale that reads like fiction.

His first private job was to bodyguard a gaggle of Saudi princes and right away Wags was on a roll: debt collections, a blackmail case, and a divorce surveillance that gives new meaning to the phrase "man's best friend"; movie stars, private jets, car chases, even a helicopter getaway under fire during an international child custody kidnapping.

As the stories pile up, the money gets better and the players get bigger...until he settles in as security chief of an upscale strip club and suddenly finds himself trapped between the Mafia and a psychotic enforcer for the Russian mob.

An up-close-and-personal look at a world we rarely see, from an honest-to-God character whose walk on the wild side ended up on the wrong side of the law.

James Wagner retired from the New York Police Department in 1990 with the rank of Sergeant. He worked as a private detective for ten years. He lives on Staten Island, New York, with his wife and family.

Unrated Critic Reviews for Jimmy the Wags

Kirkus Reviews

The prose is workmanlike, but the book satisfies with its acute details and Wagner’s caustic wit As cops privately will, Wagner crudely skewers most everyone in his way: inept FBI agents, Mafia goombahs, stool pigeons and their harridan wives.